Historic Dickerson Church

 Historic Dickerson Church

 An ongoing responsibility of Scott Memorial United Methodist Church

 

In the fall of 1802 Thomas Dickerson of Pennsylvania settled on the land where Dickerson Church now stands, about four miles southeast of Cadiz.   He was a man of strong religious convictions and soon organized prayer and bible study meetings with his neighbors. In 1804 Thomas Dickerson  and his wife Mary deeded the land where the present church now stands to the Methodist Society, and in 1817 the first log church building was built on that land.

 The little church grew and camp meetings were often held on the grounds, attracting many from the surrounding area.  At one such camp meeting on the Dickerson Church grounds seventeen year old Matthew Simpson from Cadiz went to the altar to publically give his life to the Lord.  Matthew Simpson then became a preacher in Cadiz, and later went on to become one of the youngest Bishops of the Methodist Church. In 1865 Bishop Matthew Simpson had become a famous orator and one who often spoke in defense of the Union.  He was a friend of Abraham Lincoln, and  in 1865 the sad duty fell upon his shoulders to preach the funeral oratory for President Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois.

 In 1854 a second larger church was built on the grounds, and new life increased the church membership.  During the Civil War Dickerson Church sent 28 young men from their congregation into war. It was said that the Dickerson neighborhood furnished more soldiers to the square inch than any other place in the county or the state of Ohio.

 The third and final church was built in 1888.  But by the early 1940s  many of the Dickerson Church members had transferred their membership either to Cadiz Drummond Methodist Church or the New Athens Methodist Church.  The N.E. Ohio Conference closed the church in 1942 and transferred the property to the care of the Drummond Methodist Church in Cadiz, now Scott Memorial United Methodist Church, to be maintained as a memorial to Bishop Matthew Simpson.

 The Dickerson Church Trustees (all members of Scott U.M. Church) maintain the historic old church, and the cemetery grounds are cared for by the Cadiz Township Trustees.

 An annual summer reunion takes place here each year on the second Sunday of August at 2:00 p.m.  The men and women who founded Dickerson Church, and are buried here with their loved ones left behind a lasting impression on the lives of generations to come.  We are forever grateful to them.

 “Thy will be done—always and forever—--Amen”